Because of the storm damage, rail traffic in northern Germany and in North Rhine-Westphalia will remain severely affected until at least Monday afternoon. There are delays and train cancellations, Deutsche Bahn (DB) announced on Saturday evening and continued to advise traveling to the affected regions to be postponed. “Avoid traveling to and from Hamburg and Bremen,” it said.
By the end of the day, no long-distance trains should be running north of Dortmund, Hanover and Berlin on Saturday, as well as ICE trains between Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe and Berlin, EC/IC trains between Berlin and Dresden, ICE/IC trains from Frankfurt (Main) or Berlin to Amsterdam and EC trains between Berlin and Warsaw. Individual trains ran on the Berlin – Hanover – Cologne route, it was said in the evening.
“The forecast for Sunday and Monday remains difficult,” said DB spokesman Achim Stauss. “The damage to the railway infrastructure is massive,” he explained. Over 1000 kilometers of track were damaged. “Our clearing crews are practically working at the limit.” They worked around the clock to clear sections of fallen trees and repair overhead lines. Hundreds of fallen or damaged catenary masts alone have to be replaced, according to the railways.
Stauss also said that DB had expanded the goodwill rules again. All passengers who want or have to postpone their trip planned for the period from February 17th to 21st due to the ongoing stormy season can either use their already booked long-distance ticket flexibly or cancel it free of charge up to and including February 28th. The train connection with savings prices and super savings prices has been lifted.
According to DB, there is damage to the railway infrastructure in particular in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia.
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